The Maharashtra government has relaxed two major conditions under its farm loan waiver programme. Earlier, farmers who had benefited under the 2019 scheme were eligible for a loan waiver of up to Rs 50,000. The government has now decided to increase this limit to Rs 2 lakh. In addition, the requirement of repaying crop loans during 2026-27 to receive the subsidy has been removed.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the changes in the State Assembly. Under the revised scheme, all farmers who have made regular repayments in at least two of the last three years will be eligible for the benefit. Fadnavis said such a decision had never been taken before.
He said that legislators from the ruling Mahayuti alliance had approached him and urged the government to remove the Rs 50,000 cap on the waiver amount.
Addressing the Assembly, the Chief Minister said the government held consultations with nationalised, commercial and private banks and collected relevant data before formulating the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana.
Rejecting criticism that only Rs 12,000-13,000 crore would be disbursed and that 3.6 million farmers would be excluded from the scheme, Fadnavis described it as a “historic” initiative that would provide benefits worth Rs 36,585 crore to 5.6 million farmers.
He said the government had decided to implement the loan waiver in view of the prevailing agrarian situation. “No farmer has become rich because of a loan waiver, nor can anyone become rich through it. However, if a farmer’s debt burden is removed, he will not have to turn to moneylenders. That is the objective of this scheme,” he said.
Fadnavis added that the ruling alliance had promised a farm loan waiver during the Assembly elections and had decided that farmers trapped in debt should be given relief through a comprehensive waiver programme.